Wednesday, June 22, 2005

ENV: More hot Odonate days

Martin Reid, this time in company with Dr. John Abbott and Aaron Smith, continue to make rarified finds in the sweaty South Texas brush. This time, they became the fourth, fifth and sixth humans to ever see Leptobasis melinogaster alive, and Martin obtained the first ever photos in the wild -- and in the drainage basin of a pond at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. This species was barely known to science from Mexico when Tom Langschied found a small group on the King Ranch last year -- now it pops up again on the border. And Martin et al. located several other bugs still considered rarities. Here's part of his post to the TexOdes listserv, rec'd today (be sure to check out the pics of Leptobasis, a very cool, cool bug):

Update: Jim Sinclair wrote TexOdes to correct that there were previous photos in the wild. While he didn't claim it in that post, i suspect the photos are his. If so, congrats to Jim as well, and to Dr. Abbott who has now posted pics on his Odonata Central (see Odonata links to the left).

. . . No sign of Anax concolor, Tramea abdominalis, or Microthyria didyma, but we are not complaining (again) . . . Yesterday in the late morning I found a male Leptobasis melinogaster at Willow Pond #1 - next to where the pump outlet pipe is located. We proceeded to see six males yesterday, with a further three sightings this morning, but no definite female (I briefly saw one with an orange abdomen-tip - young male?; female??). The first photos of the taxon in the wild are here: http://www.martinreid.com/odonate74.html

This afternoon I also found a male Gynacantha mexicana in the samespot - but it twice flew just as my camera was coming up to my eye. I saw itvery well in profile with binoculars, seeing the two small dark anterior lateralthoracic spots plus the posterior latero-ventral dark bar.

with Ryan Bailey on Piano, and featuring Garrett Whitten on Electric Guitar, Zack Morris on Acoustic Guitar, and Steven Toler on Acoustic Guitar

CD Producer:
Christmas on My Mind, Charles Bryant

CD Designer:
Still Life for Kristin Cox
Lost Songwriter for Michael Hawkins
Pathways for Terry & Sarah Penney
Christmas for Tim Holcombe
Heart Like a Flower for the Children’s Music Project
Prisoner of the Clay for the Children’s Music Project

recent stage roles in: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Two Left Feet, The Diviners, Cabaret, The Boys Next Door (twice), The Drawer Boy, Our Town, A Streetcar Named Desire, Circling the Drain, Death of a Salesman, High School Musical, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, The Lion in Winter, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arsenic & Old Lace

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